About Time

An elegant, witty, and engaging exploration of the riddle of time, which examines the consequences of Einstein's theory of relativity and offers startling suggestions about what recent research may reveal.The eternal questions of science and religion were profoundly recast by Einstein's theory of relativity and its implications that time can be warped by motion and gravitation, and that it cannot be meaningfully divided into past, present, and future.In About Time, Paul Davies discusses the big bang theory, chaos theory, and the recent discovery that the universe appears to be younger than some of the objects in it, concluding that Einstein's theory provides only an incomplete understanding of the nature of time. Davies explores unanswered questions such as:* Does the universe have a beginning and an end?* Is the passage of time merely an illusion?* Is it possible to travel backward -- or forward -- in time?About Time weaves physics and metaphysics in a provocative contemplation of time and the universe

CONTENTSPrefacePrologueChapter 1: A Very Brief History of TimeWhose time is it anyway?The quest for eternityEscape from timeCyclic worlds and the eternal returnNewton's time and the clockwork universeEinstein's timeIs the universe dying?The return of the eternal returnThe start of it allIt happens when it happensChapter 2: Time for a ChangeA gift from heavenGoodbye to the etherA timely solutionInterludeStretching timeThe puzzle of the twinsGoodbye to the presentTime is moneyTimescapeChapter 3: TimewarpsThe light barrier Perpetual motion and the uphill struggle Why time runs faster in spaceThe clock in the boxThe best clock in the universeThe echo that arrived lateGoing up in the worldChapter 4: Black Holes: Gateways to the End of TimeWarp factor infinityA dark mysteryPenetrating the magic circleA singular problemBeyond the end of timeAre they really out there?Chapter 5: The Beginning of Time: When Exactly Was It?The great clock in the skyThe big bang, and what happened before itOlder than the universe?Einstein's greatest mistakeTwo-timing the cosmosChapter 6: Einstein's Greatest Triumph?The handwriting of GodDid the big bang ever happen?What's a few billion years among friends?A repulsive problemThe loitering universeChapter 7: Quantum TimeTime to tunnelWatched kettles 166Erasing the pastSpooky signals and psychic particlesFaster than light?The time vanishes!Chapter 8: Imaginary TimeThe two cultures revisitedHow time got startedThe Hattie-Hawking theoryImaginary clocksChapter 9. The Arrow of TimeCatching the waveSignals from the futureA matter of time reversalThe particle that can tell the timeThe lopsided universeChapter 10: Backwards in TimeInto reverseThinking backwardsAntiworldsWinding the clock backHawking's greatest mistakeA time for everybodyChapter 11: Time Travel: Fact or Fantasy?Signaling the pastVisiting the pastBlack-hole time machinesWormholes and stringsParadoxparChapter 12: But What Time Is It Now?Can time really flow?The myth of passageDoes the arrow of time fly?Why now?Chapter 13: Experimenting with TimeHow long does the present last?Now you see it, now you don'tFilling in timeSubjective timeThe back door to our mindsChapter 14: The Unfinished RevolutionEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex